Where do you stay in or near Pasadena, CA?

There are several out in Santa Clarita. There is a Thousand Trails, Travel Village, and one or two others and WAY WAY closer time wise to Pasadena than Docweiler or San Dimas and the famous 210 traffic. Besides, Docweiler is a beach CG and it's likely booked up for the next 6 months.

As far as showing up at the Rose Parade, those are massive parking lot caravans and tours. you will also see all the CG's I mentioned FULL +- a week around Jan 1

The rv parking for the Rose Parade is at Ralph M Parsons parking lot. That is where most people stay. There is some street parking that people use, very strategically.

We have stayed at San Dimas a couple of times to go to the Pomona RV Show, and it's not too bad. That is the closest you are going to find to Pasadena. I don't think it's 35 miles away.

Its not the distance, it's the traffic. That direction on the 210 from Pasadena can be 2 hours easily

There is also a KOA next to the Fairplex in Pomona.

Gonzo42 wrote:
There is also a KOA next to the Fairplex in Pomona.

Yes, that's the one I mentioned. It's the old Fairplex one, near the one in San Dimas, East Shore, which is beautiful.

We don't travel at peak times when we're there, so the 210 isn't that bad for us. We also lived in LA for close to 40 years, so we know our way around to avoid the worst traffic.

I didn't know the Parsons lot was for RVs during that week. I keep hearing about people going down there in their RVs and I've never known where the heck they park.

Thanks to all for the ideas. I didn't know about Santa Clarita - I'll check it out.

Well I still DO live here and travel the 210 from Santa Clarita, all the way to the 57 to our daughters house, and drive right by that KOA. I can tell you for a fact that the 210 is a mess most of the day from Pasadena, East, in both directions. So much so we have driven around the backside through the desert to avoid it. If you can get in the HOV Lane, it usually moves along pretty well.

Also, never been there but talking to people that stay at that KOA for the LA RV Show say that the spots are very small because it was designed and opened before slides came around.

Valencia Travel Village

The Van Nuys location is a residential park in a very poor location. Not necessarily economically poor, just not nice. KOA Pomona is very nice, but a good 45 minutes from Pasadena without traffic. Travel Village or Castaic RV both in the Valencia area are nice, but also about 45 minutes from Pasadena. LA is not an RV friendly city, very few parks (land is too expensive and environmental regulations and zoning regulations are hard to overcome).

Yes, the VN park is largely residential, but we learned about it from friends who love it and stay there whenever they're in town. We stayed there last year, and loved that they unhitch you at the office and then park you and set up all the connections for you. When you leave, they unhook you, stow everything for you, and pull you out of your space. The spaces are quite small but each has a lawn, and the staff are all very friendly and helpful.

I've made it from Pasadena to Pomona in under half an hour, but never pulling a TT. I remember the old Fairplex RV parking, which looked like just a corner of the parking lot. I hope KOA improved on that. The San Dimas park is beautiful, with gorgeous views and big lawny spaces. Lots of full-timers there, but good facilities for the rest of us.

I'll check out the Santa Clarita park - thanks for the link.

I passed an old neon sign that said "Trailer Park" on Foothill around Tujunga Cyn., right off the 210 the other day. No idea what it looks like, but the entire street was 50's style open store fronts so it kinda fit in with the motif.

The Van Nuys park is certainly "urban" but I wouldn't call it any worse than places we have stayed in smaller towns across America. It's safe enough that small apartments near by sell for a half million dollars.

I live a few miles away from the Van Nuys location mentioned and used to work in Pasadena. The positives over the others locally include that it is the closest to Pasadena. That's about it. :)